Syria - A Desert castle: Qasr al-Hayr ach-Charqi

The Umayyad Caliphs of Damascus (660 BC - 750 BC) were built in the steppe of magnificent palaces called "Desert Castles" because they were located on the edge of the Syrian Desert, far from the Capital and his annoyance and the prying eyes of the inhabitants and where they could indulge in the pleasure of hunting, breeding horses. They sometimes built small isolated castles or hunting lodges such as Qasr Kharana or Qusayr'Amra in Jordan, or Khirbat al-Baydà in the Ledja of Syria. And of old, they were large and important castles surrounded by ramparts, usually a square building with a central courtyard slightly fortified by semicircular towers or buttresses with a bath, a mosque and a hall. hearing. The complex is completed with houses of various sizes, attics and workplaces, sometimes finally a large space enclosed by a wall. Qasr al-Hayr Ach-Sharqi, located 170 km north-east of Damascus, is part of the latter type of large castles, of which there are other examples on Djebel Sels 115 km southeast of Damascus built, apparently he, by Caliph al-Walid (705-715 AD), at Rusafat Hisham, the residence of Caliph Hisham (724-743 AD) (this is actually a group of four castles and several other buildings ) and Qasr-al-Hayr-al-Gharbi (around 728 AD) located between Damascus and Palmyra.